Moved in with MIL (86yo) 6 months ago. From California to LA. It was a promise my husband made his father. 3 days in she starts in with I stole her cigarettes. Then it’s been non stop we don’t do anything right. She falls quite often due to neuropathy and has had black eyes. She got covid in November which we nursed her back to health after a 5 day hospital stay. Now she says she was in prison (for the 14 days quarantine) and we’ve tried to poison her, we’ve switched her pills, on and on. One day a church lady we’ve never seen picks her up an takes her to an attorney. She is now trying to remove us from her home. She is living with this woman now but they are threatening to put a protective order against us to remove us (MIL donated her home to hers sons in 2019). No one is listening to us, she needs to be evaluated, she has all signs of dementia. She may have even had a brain injury from her falls. Horrible to us...sweet as pie to church people. Poison, jail, stealing from her. My husband saw her give this ‘church’ lady money....we say this is elder abuse as she has not contacted any family member and is guiding, and enabling a senior with dementia. How can we have her tested against her will?
But I would see an Elder Law Attorney and decide from there how much you wish to pursue this. Be certain to have with you evidence of her diagnosis of dementia. Without that, any fight over guardianship could run into the 1,000s in no time at all.
You may also consider a call to APS and opening a case of possible fraud, elder abuse, etc. Again, you need all the facts and evidence you can gather.
Good luck.
I don't know enough about what this church lady did with MIL but hopefully the elder abuse idea is not what is going on. People with dementia can be pretty convincing and that lady probably has no reason not to believe MIL when she is spinning her tales and asking for help.